Vettel and Webber free to 'give it all'

While much of the pre-event focus has been on whether or not Vettel will help Webber win the championship if his help is needed, team principal Christian Horner has made it clear that there will not only be no team instructions, but that the pair will be totally free to race as aggressively as they want.

Horner has already vowed not to intervene with any team orders this weekend, and says in the event that Alonso is out of the race his two men will be free to do as they want in their fight to win.

"Our priority is to really go for it, as both our drivers have nothing to lose," said Horner ahead of the season finale. "From a team point of view, we've bagged the team championship, and it would be fantastic to come away from here with the drivers' championship.

"For us it doesn't matter which one [wins]. It would be fantastic for a Red Bull driver to win it, as they would both be deserving champions. We're just going to give it everything we can and see how it pans out."

He added: "In the situation they are both racing for a championship, I don't think it would make one iota of difference if we told them not to race each other, which we wouldn't do. Obviously they know to finish first, first they need to finish. They need to finish, as Fernando has scored more points than them, but ultimately they would race each other."

Although Vettel has not confirmed in public that he will definitely pull over for Webber if required, Horner says he has no doubts that the young German will do what he needs to do to ensure that a Red Bull driver wins the title.

"For the drivers' championship, we're in a situation where we have two drivers who can win the world championship. Mark is in a better position than Seb, but both go into the event with a genuine chance of being able to win it.

"As we have done all year, we will absolutely back them equally going in to this weekend. Their objective is to obviously win the race.

"We can't control what our rivals do but for both of ours, the objective is to win. Ultimately if one of them can't do that, if he's in a position to help the other, whilst that would be his choice, I would expect that both drivers recognise that they drive for a great team and are big team players. I've got no doubt that they would do the right thing to help their team-mate."